Select Dell Client Commercial and Consumer platforms support a BIOS password reset capability that is designed to assist authorized customers who forget their passwords. Dell is aware of unauthorized password generation tools that can generate BIOS recovery passwords. The tools, which are not authorized by Dell, can be used by a physically present attacker to reset BIOS passwords and BIOS-managed Hard Disk Drive (HDD) passwords. An unauthenticated attacker with physical access to the system could potentially exploit this vulnerability to bypass security restrictions for BIOS Setup configuration, HDD access and BIOS pre-boot authentication.
The product contains a mechanism for users to recover or change their passwords without knowing the original password, but the mechanism is weak.